CTImusic
News
Winter 1998
Assessment Strategies for Popular Music Performance (pop)
Department of Music, University of Salford
Harriet Richmond
Background and Rationale
When student demand encourages traditional music departments to provide popular music courses, there is the possibility that the assessment practices already in place for classical performance will not be the most effective for popular music performance. A classical approach to music is one based on the notion of universal standards of excellence. What counts as 'good' in classical style may not be regarded as being so in popular music, and vice versa. The 'classical voice', for example, can be related to instrumental techniques and standards of beauty of tone production within that style. Popular songs, however, have their own range of assorted techniques - some of which are not found in 'classical' style - such as scatting, growling, speaking, whistling, whispering, crooning, yodelling and smearing or bending notes. The diversity of popular music genres may not be adequately accommodated within more traditional forms of assessment, and traditional technical knowledge may be very difficult to adapt to provide the breadth required by assessors of popular music, especially given the way that popular styles are often in a constant state of flux.
The music department at Salford has been running popular-music-based courses for over twelve years, devising its own methodology that has won peer approval. Salford hopes to share this knowledge, producing a staff development pack for those departments unfamiliar with some of the issues raised in the assessment of popular music performance. The pack will present examples and guidance on criteria that have been regarded independently and objectively as good practice.
New Developments
A questionnaire was piloted at fifteen institutions in August 1997 and early responses indicate that assessors and educators perceive that popular music requires a huge breadth of knowledge, owing to the diversity of the genre. This has raised three issues for the project.
- how do we define what popular music constitutes and what aspects can we teach and assess in a higher education environment?
- can we look to other disciplines in the arts to gain some insight into forms of assessment other than the 'classical' standard?
- what is the institution's educational motivation in providing popular music courses?
These questions have begun to be addressed by a committee of participating institutions and will be further debated in the coming months through internal workshops with staff at the University of Salford and at a national workshop to be held in March 1998.
Initial discussion indicates that courses have two different approaches - vocational and creative. The vocational approach encourages musicians to be multi-dimensional and multi-functional. Such people, through enforced broadening of their skills, are able to make a living in the prevailing economic framework as, for example, session musicians. The creative approach is one that fosters the specialist musician who has expertise in one or two styles, and for whom performance exists only in that it articulates composition.
Some elements of performance can be objectively assessed - sound engineering, leadership qualities and group dynamics, for example. Assessment of the creative musician, however, poses greater problems. Subjectivity inevitably becomes a much more significant part of the assessment process when an attempt is made to quantify an aesthetic such as 'star-quality', 'charisma' or 'presence'. The next stage of the project is to consider this difficulty in light of assessment practices across other disciplines.
Additional information
Further information on the pop project is available on the Web at: http://www.salford.ac.uk/FDTLpop/POP/Intro/intro.htm
Contacts
Project Manager
Harriet Richmond, Tel: +44 (0) 161 295 6107, e-mail: Harriet.Richmond@ucsalf.ac.uk
Project Assistant
Ruth Compton, Tel: +44 (0) 161 295 6106
Project Coordinator
Dr. Derek Scott, Head of Department, Tel: +44 (0) 161 295 6134, e-mail: Derek.Scott@ucsalf.ac.uk
Other Project Members at Salford
Robin Dewhurst, Head of Popular Music and Recording, Tel: +44 (0) 161 295 6136, e-mail: Robin.Dewhurst@ucsalf.ac.uk
Tim Warner, Popular music, Tel: +44 (0) 161 295 6110, e-mail: Timothy.Warner@ucsalf.ac.uk
Geoff Cove, Head of Education Development Unit, Tel: +44 (0) 161 295 2336, e-mail: G.C.Cove@ed-dev.salford.ac.uk
Project Address
University of Salford
Department of Music
Adelphi Building
Peru Street
Salford
Greater Manchester
M3 6EQ
UK
Tel (switchboard): 0161 295 5000
Fax: 0161 295 6113
Participating Institutions
Dr James Birkett
Centre for Popular Music
Newcastle College
Geraldine Conner
Popular Music Studies
Bretton Hall College
Dr Allan Moore
Centre for Research into Contemporary Music Practices
Thames Valley University
Norton York
School of Media and Design
University of Westminster
CTImusic News is © 1998 CTImusic, Jennifer Barnes, Simon Baines, Cliona Doris, Marianne Hall, Michael Pengelly, Harriet Richmond, Claire Taylor-Jay, Lisa Whistlecroft. All rights reserved
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